Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Iowa Care Home Sent Woman To Funeral Home In Zipped Body Bag—But She Was Still Alive

sign for Glen Oaks Alzheimer's Special Care Center in Urbandale, Iowa
@WeAreIowa/Youtube

Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Center has been fined $10,000 after funeral home workers discovered the woman was still breathing.

A funeral home's discovery a woman brought from an Alzheimer's hospice facility in a corpse bag was still alive resulted in a $10,000 fine for the facility in a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa.

In a report submitted on Wednesday, the Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals stated the 66-year-old woman was pronounced dead on January 3 at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer's Special Care Center in Urbandale, Iowa.


The woman—whose name has not been made public—was receiving hospice care since December 28 for early onset dementia, anxiety and depression. According to the report she was placed in a body bag with a zipper then transported to the Ankeny Funeral Home & Crematory.

Once there the funeral home staff discovered she was breathing and dialed 911.

You can see the report here:

youtu.be

She was unresponsive but breathing when she was brought to Mercy West Lakes Hospital.

Eventually the patient was transferred back to hospice care, where she passed away on January 5 with her loved ones by her side.

The woman was being cared for by a team at Glen Oaks, where a staff member who worked a 12-hour shift said she first alerted a nurse practitioner about the woman's condition early on January 3.

In addition to being unable to locate a pulse, the nurse practitioner attending to the woman all night claimed she was not breathing. Before concluding the woman passed away, she continued to examine her for about five minutes.

About 90 minutes after the staff member's initial complaint, at 6:30 am the woman was pronounced deceased. No signs of life were discovered when the woman was placed into the body bag and the funeral home's truck by a funeral home employee and a second nurse practitioner about an hour later.

People's reactions to this story were quite visceral.

They started with the usual "wait, what?" before moving on to more nuanced reactions.

Many people commented on the fact the facility has only been fined $10k by the state.

Noting the nurse had worked 12 hours, one person got quite pointed about the difference between fines and staffing ratios.

Others shared this was their actual nightmare—being metaphorically buried alive or incinerated in a crematorium.

Others were asking why there wasn't a doctor involved.

Still another commented unfortunately capitalism is at the center of most elder care in the USA today.

Finally, many people can agree on at least one thing.

It's time for a change.

Thankfully the woman passed peacefully surrounded by her loved ones, but what a terrible last few days.

More from Trending

Screenshot of Stephen Colbert
CBS

Stephen Colbert Makes Somber Plea To Americans In Wake Of Charlie Kirk's Death

Late-night host Stephen Colbert had a somber message for Americans as he addressed the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk, stressing that "political violence only leads to more political violence."

Kirk died after an unidentified gunman shot him in the neck as he—ironically enough—mocked victims of gun violence at an event in Utah Valley State University. Kirk's murder has galvanized the far-right, with President Donald Trump and his surrogates claiming without evidence that rhetoric from Democrats is responsible for Kirk's death.

Keep ReadingShow less
a woman sunbathing on rocks.
a person sitting on a towel on a beach
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

People Share The Weirdest Flexes They Heard Someone Say With A Straight Face

It is never attractive to gloat.

Even so, some people can't help but brag, or "flex" as it is sometimes known, about certain accomplishments or attributes.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @thedowntheredoc's TikTok video
@thedowntheredoc/TikTok

TikToker Hilariously Calls Out Target After Champion Pants Feature Awkwardly-Placed Front Pleat

Sometimes you can just tell when something was designed *for* women, but was not actually designed *by* women.

Take, for instance, the new pleated pants available at Target from the Champion clothing line. While there's nothing wrong with pleated pants and they certainly have a suitable spot in the workplace, the latest rendition of Champion pleated pants are, shall we say, NSFW.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @kaicutch's Instagram video
@kaicutch/Instagram

Woman Flips Her Car After Belting Out Ironic Britney Spears Lyric In Wild Viral Video

Whether we want to admit it or not, we've all had our fair share of carpool karaoke and maybe even imagined our car as our own personal recording studio.

But TikToker and Instagrammer Kaitlynn McCutcheon may have gotten too into her performance of Britney Spears' classic, "Hit Me Baby, One More Time," when the road and her car both said, "Bet."

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from ​@lynnshazeen's TikTok video
@lynnshazeen/TikTok

Woman Goes Viral After Revealing How Her Obsession With Matcha Landed Her In The Hospital

Let's be honest: Too much of anything isn't good for us. It's all about the balance!

But the media and social media trends have taught us that certain things are really good for us, encouraging us to be like the "very mindful and very demure" girls and take care of ourselves. One such example is drinking more matcha, especially if you really like coffee or think you have a caffeine addiction.

Keep ReadingShow less